Just kidding. It's January 29th and we won't see Christmas's pretty face again for another 338 days.

It's your one and only curly headed blog chief Ashton here to remind you all of Christmas cheer and give you a recap of what some of us MC students spent their Christmas break doing.

Like a lot of other students, I spent my break at home resting, reading, and spending time with friends from high school. By the end of the fall semester, Christmas break comes as bright shining light in the midst of the dark cloud that we call finals. More often than not, students go into the break craving sleep, home cooked meals, and Netflix.

The key to the perfect Christmas Break is this: loose plans, a lot of friends, good food, and solid adventure. Let me explain.

Loose PlansAfter a full fall semester, filling your Christmas break with a million and five things to do is too much. I spent my first week at home hanging out with my cat and only making plans last minutes. Even by the end of break, I never scheduled myself a full day because I knew that when the semester rolled around, I would have nothing BUT full days ahead of me. I know that other students spent their break with family traveling or watching more Netflix than they can remember. The key to it all is keeping the load light and the rest full.

A Lot of FriendsBeing home for long periods of time is something that a college student rarely gets to experience. This break was the longest amount of time that I've been home since before I graduated high school. The hard truth is that being in my hometown in a month can get pretty boring pretty fast, but thankfully I had a handful of friends in town to pass the time with. On Christmas Eve, I got to see almost my entire friend group from high school and on two different occasions I got to have lunch with high school teachers and my best friends (yes, we are friends with our high school teachers-- judge us if you will). If I hadn't spent as much time with my friends as I did, Christmas break would have been a little sad. While we're home, we have to take advantage of the time we have with our high school friends because a) they're great b) we never really know when we'll see them again and c) cause they loved us at our weirdest.

Good FoodLet's get real, nothing beats a home cooked meal and few things are sweeter than going to those only-in-your-hometown restaurants. A essential part of Christmas break is meeting friends for lunch dates and making your mom cook for you as much as she's willing to. Though The Caf feeds us on campus, it's a different kind of full when the food comes from your home kitchen. I have a friend who made (and completed) a food bucket list for his time at home. I spent a handful of afternoons at restaurants with friends (and former teachers) catching up and eating food that I can only get in Orange Beach (my hometown). Food is important, people.

Solid AdventureThe best thing about adventure is that you get to choose what it looks like. Whether it was reading a new book or traveling to Haiti, our Christmas break adventures looked however we wanted them to. My adventures included diving into four new books and spending one night watching all of The Dark Knight movies with my best friend. For others, it was road tripping across the country, doing missions in another country, or even just visiting their old high school.

Christmas break is a month-ish of time where we get to do whatever we want without any school work looming over our shoulders. It was a sweet time, but unfortunately (and fortunately) we said goodbye to it two weeks ago. As the new semester really gets rolling, let's be thankful for the rest we had but work hard to enjoy this new season!

Happy Spring Semester, friends! Enjoy it while it lasts and don't forget to eat cookies.